1863.] DR. J. E. GRAY ON THE BOX TORTOISES. 177 



iv. Toes webbed; they and legs covered with very small scales ; 

 front legs only with thin band-like plates in front ; the lobes 

 of the sternum narrow. 



6. NOTOCHELYS. 



Back convex, flattened above. The sternum flexuous ; lobes rather 

 narrow, truncated in front and behind. The legs and toes covered 

 with minute scales ; the front legs having a series of broad, thin, 

 band-like shields in front. Toes webbed. Claws acute. 



This genus is like a true Emys in most of its characters ; but the 

 sternum is scarcely raised above the underside of the margin, and 

 is united to the thorax by a cartilaginous symphysis ; the lobes are 

 separated by a straight depressed suture, but scarcely moveable. It 

 differs from all the other Cistudince in the legs and toes being 

 covered with minute lanceolate scales as in Batagur, with only a few 

 very narrow shields near the claws. 



NoTOCHELYS PLATYNOTA. 



Emys platynota. Gray, P. Z. S. 1834, p. 54. 



Cyclemys platynota. Gray, Cat. Shield Reptiles B.M. p. 43. 



Hub. Sumatra; Singapore (^«//ace). 



The head with a pale streak on each side, extended down the 

 upper part of the sides of the neck. 



The young specimens have one small black spot on the back edge 

 of the areola of the costal, and two on the back edge of the areola of 

 the vertebral plates. 



In the aberrant Cistudince the lobes are only moveable in the 

 young state ; the transverse suture that divides the bones of the 

 sternum into two parts is straight and transverse, while the front edge 

 of the pair of ventral shields overlaps its edge and forms a sinuous 

 line in front of the suture. The lobes of the sternum are narrower 

 than the opening of the thorax, as in Emys, and do not cover the 

 legs when they are contracted. 



This genus forms the transition to the Tortoises with solid and 

 fixed sternum ; but it is easily known from them by the sternum 

 being scarcely raised above the margin of the thorax, and by the 

 existence of the cartilaginous sutures between the sternum and thorax. 



7. Cyclemys. 



The thorax convex or depressed. The sternum flat or slightly 

 convex, with the lateral symphysis well marked, truncated before 

 and notched behind ; the cross suture indistinctly marked and nar- 

 row, more or less obliterated in the adult, covered with the produced 

 front edge of the ventral shields. The legs covered with large, 

 band-like, thin plates in front. The toes banded above ; the front 

 one short, webbed. The hind feet flattened, with the toes broadly 

 webbed ; the hinder edge keeled and angularly produced. 



Proc. Zool. Soc— 1863, No. XII. 



